UConn shines for more than just a moment

The champs again drain the excitement from the NCAA title game

Tristen Newton

As we await the historic news from the Nielsen folks, we wonder if Connecticut will be known as the basketball program that ate Mondays.

The Huskies’ 75-60 unanimous decision over Purdue on Monday was their sixth, without a defeat, in six NCAA men’s championship games over the past 25 years. We are not likely to see anything more dynastic unless, of course, Connecticut keeps doing this. And it might, since coach Dan Hurley says he has no interest in the Kentucky job and since Hurley just finished winning back-to-back championships with two radically different teams. Nothing says he can’t do it again in 2025. Besides, there’s a home to preserve.

“We went to Rhode Island, which I had to drag her to,” said Hurley, referencing  his wife Andrea, “and then we went to UConn, which is a little closer to (their native) New Jersey. I can’t afford a divorce right now. I’m just starting to make money.”

Two of those championship victories are essential NCAA history. In 1999, Khalid el-Amin led UConn to a 77-74 win over a Duke team that some were projecting as worthy of NBA playoffs. In 2014, with Kevin Ollie coaching and Shabazz Napier on an unstoppable heater, the Huskies disposed of Kentucky, 60-54.

Purdue was the third No. 1 seed to lose to UConn in a title game. The other three wins  were yawners. UConn beat San Diego State 76-59 last year,, beat Butler 53-41 in 2011 and beat Georgia Tech 82-73 in 2004. In fact, Monday night has generally been tough to endure in recent years. Sure, there was Kris Jenkins’ buzzer-beater for Villanova over North Carolina in 2016, but there was also Baylor 86, Gonzaga 70 in 2021, and Villanova 79, Michigan 62 in 2019, and North Carolina 89, Michigan State 72 in 2009 and Florida 73, UCLA 57 in 2006. One Boring Moment or, actually, a bunch of them.

As The Field of 68.com noted, Connecticut has missed 32 percent of the NCAA tournaments played since 1999, mostly thanks to scandal, and yet won 24 percent of them. This particular team had an average victory margin of 23.3 points in the tournament, which is a record, and trailed for a total of six minutes and 12 seconds and never by more than two possessions.

It’s absurd to call this, or any other team, the best of alltime because there’s no way to time-travel. Most people would take Duke’s Grant Hill, Christian Laettner and Hurley’s brother Bobby and give UConn numerous points in a head to head. If you want to go back beyond the Rubicon, when conference runners-up weren’t permitted into the field, it’s hard to imagine anyone holding off the UCLA teams of 1967-69 or North Carolina State in 1974.

But, like Larry Holmes did for a long time, this UConn team put away everything that was put in front of it, and also mashed a Big East conference that, contrary to the estimates of the NCAA selection committee, obviously had more than three tournament-worthy teams.

What separates UConn from the two previous back-to-back programs is turnover. Duke in 1991-92 was basically the same unit. It sneaked up on us by upsetting UNLV in the ‘91 semifinals and then beating Kansas. In 1992 it was a powerhouse that ripped apart Michigan’s Fab Five in the championship game. 

Florida, which was very reminiscent of UConn in its consistency, relied on big men Joakim Noah and Al Horford (yes, that Al Horford), along with swingman Corey Brewer and the vastly underrated Taurean Green at point. The Gators won every ‘07 tournament game by seven or more points, and won all but one in ‘06 by ten or more. But coach Billy Donovan had no major cast replacements to make.

Connecticut ‘24 returned only four significant players, including Tristen Newton, the Final Four’s alleged Most Outstanding Player, and lost its prime movers, like Adama Sanogo, and Andre Jackson. In their stead, Rutgers transfer Cam Spencer and freshman Stephon Castle provided size and shooting on the wing, and Donovan Clingan, as many had suspected, burst into bloom as the most ominous defensive big men in Division I.

To be that good, to go unbeaten between Dec. 20 and Feb. 20, speaks to the system as well as the talent. And UConn’s methods make basketball purists rejoice. The Huskies play on a string, with all the off-ball screens and constant movement, their uncanny instincts for finding open space. They always seem to take the best shot available. No heat checks, no pull-up 3-pointers on fast breaks when a teammate is bearing down on the hoop. If you want to compare them to anyone, check out the New York Knicks of the early 70s, perhaps the most harmonious symphony in NBA history.

Add all that to their absolute refusal to blow off any possession, on either end, and you have consecutive championships in a sport that might not be as good as it ever was but might be as competitive. The Huskies have no lapses and they extract a frightful price when you have yours. They aren’t leaning on their talent, or taking it for granted. They’re just playing to the max, to an extent that most coaches dare not dream.

In this game, Hurley knew that Zach Edey was too good to double-team. If UConn had chosen to, Edey would have found spacious shots for his guards and still scored and probably gotten the Huskies in foul trouble. Instead, UConn played him straight, kept Clingan out of foul trouble (and might have won by more if backup center Samson Johnson had stayed on the floor), and didn’t even bother bringing back the guards to harass Edey until the second half, when the energetic and emotive Spencer took advantage of Edey’s fatigue. 

Instead they removed the 3-pointer from Purdue’s ecosystem. The Boilermakers made only one deep shot. That’s impressive defense. But not as impressive as the number of threes they were permitted to attempt: Seven. Purdue averaged 20 3-point tries during the season and hit 40.4 percent, second-best in Division I.

Edey, meanwhile, accepted UConn’s invitation to be great. He hit 15 of 25 shots and scored 37 of Purdue’s 60 points. But he also had zero assists because UConn deprived him of targets. If you’re rating the execution of a defensive plan, this might be the highest level since the 1985 Chicago Bears.

Edey still deserved the MOP, the way Jerry Chambers won it for a losing Utah team in 1966, or Bill Bradley for a losing Princeton team the year before. His duck-under move to score on Clingan in the first half was mind-boggling for a man that massive. He was 24 for 39 over the weekend. Maybe the scouts are right and Edey can’t play in the NBA. But if you feel that way, maybe you should tell him.

Four years ago Hurley had straightened out UConn basketball to the point where it could get an NCAA bid. It was the 7th seed and lost to Maryland in the first round. That was the bubble tournament, staged in various Indiana buildings, and that game  was played at Mackey Arena, Purdue’s homecourt.

Things change quickly, maybe faster than they ever have in college basketball. Why, on Sunday afternoon, there was an average viewing audience of 18.7 million for the South Carolina-Iowa NCAA women’s final, and at times it swelled to 24 million. No basketball game, regardless of gender or level, has done that well since Virginia beat Texas Tech for the 2019 men’s championship, and in that time no sporting event other than football, the World Cup or the Olympics has been that popular.

In 49 states, we brace for the unprecedented news that the women’s final surpassed the men’s. In Connecticut, where the UConn women have won 11 championships and the two teams have gone 17-1 in NCAA championship games, they’re still wide awake when Monday gets to midnight.